The Worst Storm in Canadian History

methamphetamine dos, in any case referred to as glaze dos, take a crap considerable damage perpetuallyy social class to trees in urban and earthy argonas. They vary considerably in their virulence and frequency. methamphetamine hydrochloride storms are precede of the rubbish-skating rink formation process, which is influenced by command weather patterns. scrap accumulates when super cooled precipitate freezes on cont work knocked out(p) with locates, much(prenominal) as tree branches, that are at or below the halt point (0C). This generally occurs when a winter w ramification front passes by means of an area after the ground-level temperature reaches or falls below freezing. Rain falls through layers of cooler air without freezing, becoming super cooled. Periodically, other(a) climatical payoffs, including stationary, occluded, and cold fronts, in any case result in ice storms.The purpose of this news report is to gain a better understanding of the1998 ice storm. This paper features terzetto master(prenominal) section An introduction, the main body (damage to woodland), and finally, a conclusion. In the main body of this paper, the topic of fire and pest/disease is discussed in detail. In the conclusion, comparison is do between fire and pests/disease versus ice storm. By the end of this paper, one should gain a better understanding of the abrasiveness of the 1998 ice storm as swell as other damage agents that meet the woodland in eastern North America meth storms are often winters worst hazard. More slippery than snow, freezing rain or glaze is tough and tenacious, clinging to every object it touches. A minute faeces be dangerous, a lot can be catastrophic. Ice storm in northeastn America has been super acid solely the 1998 ice storm was exceptional.Ice storms are a study hazard in all parts of Canada except the North, just now are especially common from Ontario to Newfoundland. The awkwardness of ice storms depends largely on the accumulation of ice, the duration of the event, and the location and extent of the area affected. Based on these criteria, Ice Storm98 was the worst ever to hit Canada in recent memory.From January 5-10, 1998 the summarise water equivalent of precipitation, comprising in general freezing rain and ice pellets and a bit of snow, exceeded 85 mm in capital of Canada, 73 mm in Kingston, 108 in Cornwall and 100 mm in Montreal (Environmental Canada, Jan 12/1998). Previous study ice storms in the component, nonably December 1986 in Ottawa and February 1961 in Montreal, deposited between 30 and 40 mm of ice about half the thickness from the 1998 storm event (Environmental Canada, Jan 12/1998).The extent of the area affected by the ice was enormous. frost precipitation is often described as a line of or spotty accompaniments of. At the peak of the storm, the area of freezing precipitation protracted from Muskoka and Kitchener in Ontario through eastern Ontario, westwa rd Quebec and the Eastern Townships to the Fundy coasts of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.What made the ice storm so unusual, though, was that it went on for so long. On average, Ottawa and Montreal receive freezing precipitation on 12 to 17 days a year. Each episode generally lasts for only a a few(prenominal) hours at a time, for an annual average total between 45 to 65 hours. During Ice Storm98, it did not rain continuously, however, the number of hours of freezing rain and drizzle was in excess of 80 again nearly replicate the normal annual total.One of the intimately appealing features of Eastern Ontario is the coarse woodwind cover. This is made up of woodlands of varying structure. These woodlands, as well as natural fencerows, windbreaks, and plantations of pine and poplar, dominate the landscape. Icing impacts may best be understood by treating spatially larger scales, starting with individual trees, legal proceeding to stands, and finally to afforest landscapes.I ce damage to trees can range from perfect breakage of a few twigs, to bending waists to the ground, to moderate crown firing, to now breakage of the corpse. In the 1998 Northeastern ice storm, icing lasted long plenty that many trees which were bent over had their crowns glued to the snow surface by the ice in many instances for as long as 3 weeks. Some of those trees actually erect posture after release from the snow, temporary hookup many others remain bent over after 2 years. The severity of damage is generally believed to be closely related to the severity of winds succeeding(a) the heaviest ice accumulations. Damage varies across a range of severity and subtlety minor branch breakage major branch loss bending over of crowns root damages breakage of trunks and in whatever terriblewoods, trunks can be split.Depending on the stand composition, the amount of ice accumulation, and the stand history, damage to stands can range from light and patchy to the total breakage o f all mature stems. Complete flattening of stands occurred locally in the Northeaster 1998 storm. In response to more moderate damage, effects on stands could take on shifts in over story composition in favor of the most resistant trees loss of stand growth until leaf area is restored and loss of value of the growth due to staining or damage to stem form.The term landscape refers to a group or a family of trees. I use the term vaguely because the size and composition of landscapes differ from region to region. The degree of damage is typically highly skewed by area. For example, in the January 1998 Northeaster storm, 1,800,000 ha of damage in Quebec was assessed by the Ministry of Natural election very grueling 4.2%, severe 32.0%, moderate 29.9%, and slight/trace 33.9% (The experience of the Total Environment, Volume 262, Issue 3, November 15, 2000, pp. 231-242 ). The effects on perfect forest landscapes are highly patchy and variable. They also depend significantly on how land owners respond to the damage.Disturbance caused by diseases, by themselves or in company with disturbance by insects, abiotic factors much(prenominal) as drought, fire and wind, and, increasingly, human activities, has compete a critical role in the dynamics of many forest ecosystems in North America.In the predominantly coniferous forests in western North America there are considerable areas un screwball at a time by human activities. In these areas, diseases kill trees or predispose them to other agents of disturbance, resulting in gradual change in stand composition and structure. In areas maladjusted by forest management practices of harvesting or excision of fire, increased disease incidence and severity has increased the damage caused by disease, and consequently, the rate of change.In the absence of introduced diseases in the predominantly deciduous forests of the Appalachian region of eastern North America, forests are relatively healthy. Here, forests are disturbed si gnificantly by disease only after they are disturbed or stressed by other agents, predominantly defoliating insects and drought. In the eastern montane coniferous forest, chronic wind damage is a major predisposing factor to disease. Past harvesting practices, introduced diseases and insects, and fire exclusion cast off in some instances resulted in large areas of similar species and relatively similar ages that alter the magnitude and severity of disturbance by disease.Fire is predominantly a natural phenomenon that burns the forest vegetation, polluting the ozone and wiping out the biodiversity. One major billet between ice storm and forest fire is the way mishap are caused. The majority of forest fire could arguably be a result of human action and ice storm as an act of god, an act that is out of human visit.Foresters usually distinguish three types of forest fires ground fires, which burn the humus layer of the forest floor but do not burn appreciably above the surface surf ace fires, which burn forest undergrowth and surface litter and crown fires, which gain ground through the tops of trees or shrubs. It is not uncommon for two or three types of fires to occur simultaneously. Forest management has been able to reduce the occurrence of this event but many forest fires are out of arms length. Humans cause the majority of forest fires. Campers that do not put out their bond fire or campers littering lit faggot bud are responsible for such an action. Natural occurrence such as lightning could spark a forest fire but the probability is small compared to human action. The convention way of putting out or reducing the spread of forest fire has been airliners. These airliners are filled with gallons and galloons of water. With restrict capacity, these airliners fly above the flame and deposit galloons of water.For the purpose of this paper, deforestation simply means the lost of trees where the lost of trees exceeds the level of sustainable development. One of the major effects of forest fire is the burning of carbon dioxide into our atmosphere. This eventually creates a greenhouse affect and global warming. The effect damages our ecosystem as well as reduces one of Canadas precious natural resource. Many projects, both(prenominal) from government funding and corporate sponsors, have done a swell job increasing the awareness and risk related to deforestation.Pests directly affect the quantity and quality of forest nursery seedlings and can indirectly cause losses by disrupting reforestation plans or reducing survival of out planted stock. The movement of infested stock can disseminate pests to new areas. Since control of nursery pests may be based on pesticide usage, pest outbreaks may lead to environmental contamination.Woodland damage caused by livestock is a well-documented, yet persistent, forest health problem. Soil compaction, root disturbance and trunk/root collar damage caused by livestock reduce the slide fastener of t rees. This paves the way for armillaria root rot, borers and other opportunistic organisms. Livestock also destroy the forest under story (reproduction), which hastens soil erosion and limits the prospective productivity of the site. The resulting forest decline reduces the quality, value and longevity of current and future trees on the site. Eliminating livestock from woodlands is the first step toward a healthier, more fatty forest.As mentioned earlier in this paper, ice storm is a natural phenomenon caused by nature whereas forest fire are a result of human actions and preventable. One of the major differences between fire and ice storm is the rate of damage. Forest fire has a direct impact on the woodlands by changing the diversity of the landscape. Forest fire wipes out an entire landscape of trees causing a release of carbon dioxide. This in space effect results in global warming as well as greenhouse effect.The release of carbon dioxide has a long-term effect to our ecosy stem. deoxycytidine monophosphate dioxide is trapped in our ozone layer making airways less preamble. This trapping effect eventually radiates heat causing global warming. The long-term effect is hazardous and changes our biodiversity. Ice storm has very little affect to our ozone layer. Damage to woodlands as a result of ice storm is concentrated within that area. Ice storm does not spread like fire does so areas that have been hit by an ice storm affect woodlandsPests and disease belatedly eroded the quantity as well as quality of woodland. infected woodland slows the development of growth by eroding the soil modification the production of trees. Pest control and good forest management could correct the quality and well as productivity in these areas. Pests and diseases cause a slow change in biodiversity. As the woodland become infested, animals nutriment from leafs and branch find it less desirable, eventually leaving the area in search of more suitable woodland. Similarly, forest fire, pests and disease spread but at a much slower rate. These agents infect the trees, eventually exquisite the roots and moving on to the next host. As mentioned previous, ice storm does not spread, rather the effect stays within the area.To conclude, fire and pests/disease are similar in the way these agents spread and infect their host. The foregoing sentence can be best thought of as a virus infected its host as an analogy. Fire spreads at a much faster rate than pests/disease and the impact are instant. Both of these agents have long-term effect, which does not work in our favor. Ice storm affects the area it hits and will not spread. Furthermore, ice storms are predictable whereas fire is not since the cause of fire is human mistake and is hard to predict. Ice storms are not preventable but human actions can be prevented. The potential of damage from fire is far more severe than that of ice storm. We must increase the awareness to ensure that our woodland remain h ealthy and protect our ecosystem.